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Back to the '40s in Norristown (1st review)
Steve Cohen
Something different:
A '40s night club in wartime
STEVE COHEN
In the course of researching a book about the Second World War, I’ve been interviewing cast and orchestra members from the all-soldier musical, This Is the Army, which toured from 1942 to 1945. They’ve been telling me about their skits and songs and about going to a nightclub just before shipping out for overseas duty. You can imagine my surprise when I came across a comparable new entertainment in our own backyard: Holiday Show at the Swing Club, by Theatre Horizon. Erin Reilly and Matt Decker, co-directors of Theatre Horizon, did their own independent research as they created a simulation of a similar event.
Because of my background research, I really dug this new show– to use the lingo of the ’40s. This is the closest thing I’ve ever seen to the quintessence of the original.
Real life:
Saturday, November 28, 1942, was the last night This Is the Army played in Boston. Everyone in the cast planned to go to the Cocoanut Grove nightclub for a party after the closing curtain.
Seymour Greene and a few others from This Is the Army took dinner at the Cocoanut Grove before the Saturday evening performance, intending to return four hours later for the send-off party. Mickey Alpert and his orchestra played, and the most-requested song by servicemen was "You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To." Cole Porter wrote that song earlier that year for Nelson Barclift, a dancer in the cast whom Porter was romancing.
As the boys prepared to go overseas, Porter wrote to Barclift: "If you have hardships and become homesick, think of one major hardship that people like myself have. I’m sick of having wonderful kids like yourself saying goodbye and disappearing for so long."
After that night’s performance of This Is the Army, an officer told the soldiers who were waiting to go to their scheduled party: "None of you leaves here until we get the sets struck and everything packed." The men complained because they had to wait, but the order saved their lives. They missed being inside the Cocoanut Grove when fire broke out, destroying the building and killing 492 people, many of them soldiers and sailors— the most deadly fire in U.S. history.
This Is the Army drummer Phil Kraus was enveloped by fear when he heard about the fire, because his wife and her cousin planned to go night clubbing that evening. They could have been at the Cocoanut Grove and they might be dead. Boarding a train to leave Boston, Kraus had no way to call his wife or cousin, nor could they reach him (no cell phones then). The next morning Kraus discovered that the two ladies had gone to a movie instead, and they were safe.
This show:
It is a nightclub on December 31, 1943. An emcee gathers musicians and singers for one last show before they head to war. The musicians perform songs from that era as they bid their audience farewell.
The jokes are topical and corny, the spirit unabashedly patriotic. Music is played by a five-man swing band led by Sam Heifetz (who did the same for the Prince Theater’s Lena Horne show, Stormy Weather). The instrumentals alone, including Heifetz’s orchestrations and great piano playing, are worth the admission price. On top of that, vocalists croon two dozen ballads and novelty songs from that era.
A slim thread of a plot shapes the evening, but mainly this is a re-creation of what a live show was like on a New Year’s Eve in wartime, and it includes interaction with patrons seated at tables. 1812 Productions has been copying well-known comedy routines of the past for its year-end revues, but Holiday Show at the Swing Club is different. No one imitates a specific singer. Instead, Matt Decker’s script asks everyone in the cast to adopt the style of the period but also to display individuality and improvise. This is accomplished terrifically by Ted Powell as the emcee and Erin Reilly, Ryane Nicole Studivant, Franco Vuono and Rachel Camp as singers and dancers. Mike Reilly is a wisecracking drummer/comedian. The tap dancing and jitterbugging (choreographed by Joe Cicala) are spectacular.
To read another review by Jim Rutter, click here.
A '40s night club in wartime
STEVE COHEN
In the course of researching a book about the Second World War, I’ve been interviewing cast and orchestra members from the all-soldier musical, This Is the Army, which toured from 1942 to 1945. They’ve been telling me about their skits and songs and about going to a nightclub just before shipping out for overseas duty. You can imagine my surprise when I came across a comparable new entertainment in our own backyard: Holiday Show at the Swing Club, by Theatre Horizon. Erin Reilly and Matt Decker, co-directors of Theatre Horizon, did their own independent research as they created a simulation of a similar event.
Because of my background research, I really dug this new show– to use the lingo of the ’40s. This is the closest thing I’ve ever seen to the quintessence of the original.
Real life:
Saturday, November 28, 1942, was the last night This Is the Army played in Boston. Everyone in the cast planned to go to the Cocoanut Grove nightclub for a party after the closing curtain.
Seymour Greene and a few others from This Is the Army took dinner at the Cocoanut Grove before the Saturday evening performance, intending to return four hours later for the send-off party. Mickey Alpert and his orchestra played, and the most-requested song by servicemen was "You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To." Cole Porter wrote that song earlier that year for Nelson Barclift, a dancer in the cast whom Porter was romancing.
As the boys prepared to go overseas, Porter wrote to Barclift: "If you have hardships and become homesick, think of one major hardship that people like myself have. I’m sick of having wonderful kids like yourself saying goodbye and disappearing for so long."
After that night’s performance of This Is the Army, an officer told the soldiers who were waiting to go to their scheduled party: "None of you leaves here until we get the sets struck and everything packed." The men complained because they had to wait, but the order saved their lives. They missed being inside the Cocoanut Grove when fire broke out, destroying the building and killing 492 people, many of them soldiers and sailors— the most deadly fire in U.S. history.
This Is the Army drummer Phil Kraus was enveloped by fear when he heard about the fire, because his wife and her cousin planned to go night clubbing that evening. They could have been at the Cocoanut Grove and they might be dead. Boarding a train to leave Boston, Kraus had no way to call his wife or cousin, nor could they reach him (no cell phones then). The next morning Kraus discovered that the two ladies had gone to a movie instead, and they were safe.
This show:
It is a nightclub on December 31, 1943. An emcee gathers musicians and singers for one last show before they head to war. The musicians perform songs from that era as they bid their audience farewell.
The jokes are topical and corny, the spirit unabashedly patriotic. Music is played by a five-man swing band led by Sam Heifetz (who did the same for the Prince Theater’s Lena Horne show, Stormy Weather). The instrumentals alone, including Heifetz’s orchestrations and great piano playing, are worth the admission price. On top of that, vocalists croon two dozen ballads and novelty songs from that era.
A slim thread of a plot shapes the evening, but mainly this is a re-creation of what a live show was like on a New Year’s Eve in wartime, and it includes interaction with patrons seated at tables. 1812 Productions has been copying well-known comedy routines of the past for its year-end revues, but Holiday Show at the Swing Club is different. No one imitates a specific singer. Instead, Matt Decker’s script asks everyone in the cast to adopt the style of the period but also to display individuality and improvise. This is accomplished terrifically by Ted Powell as the emcee and Erin Reilly, Ryane Nicole Studivant, Franco Vuono and Rachel Camp as singers and dancers. Mike Reilly is a wisecracking drummer/comedian. The tap dancing and jitterbugging (choreographed by Joe Cicala) are spectacular.
To read another review by Jim Rutter, click here.
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